with good news like this, who needs bad news?

Armed with the results of a new Marist Institute poll, the Knights of Columbus announce that they have good news and bad news about the rising generation of American Catholics—described as "millennials" because they came of age around the millennium.

Some of the good news for the Catholic Church in the survey includes:

85% of Catholic Millennials (those 18-29) believe in God.

80% of Catholic Millennials see religion as at least "somewhat important" in their lives.

Or to put it a bit differently, 20% of these young Catholics don't even believe in God, and 20% don't think faith is even "somewhat important." In other words one out of five young Catholics has no interest in the faith whatsoever. And that, remember, is the good news.

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something is off on the logic here. who do you think taught those awful ccd teachers? the nuns, brothers and priests that you guys are praising. so clearly, something didn't get transferred. i'd say that parochial schools are the worst thing that ever happened in the us church. parents get the idea that they can dump their kids off at school/ccd and someone else will form the kids. until parents realize that they are the primary formers of their children, nothing good will happen.

Posted by: journeyman -
Feb. 14, 2010 7:39 PM ET USA

The previous comments gave me an idea. Many of us out here in the world are already deeply committed secular members of religious orders such as Carmelites, Dominicans, Franciscans and others. After years of formation and continuing study of our Orders' rules and Scripture, we could fill a desperate need within the Church to bring AUTHENTIC Catholic doctrine to the children, based on the Psalms and the New Testament before it's too late, thus ignoring the deficient catechetical texts mentioned.

Posted by: Cornelius -
Feb. 13, 2010 3:27 PM ET USA

A turtle was mugged one day by two snails. When the police came to take a report, the turtle said, "I can't remember anything - it all happened so fast."
It's all a matter of perspective.

Posted by: Gil125 -
Feb. 13, 2010 1:55 PM ET USA

Chestertonian makes a very good and seldom noticed point. My instruction came at the hands of an elderly priest who both knew and believed all that the Catholic Church held and taught. And who could answer every question. Of course, that was back in the bad, old days before Vatican II.

Posted by: Pseudodionysius -
Feb. 13, 2010 9:10 AM ET USA

This "hapless bench of bishops" has presided over quite a lopsided football score don't you think? Yet, the wide receiver with the Bas Relief and $450,000 payout to his paramour elicits not so much as a cough from the linemen, the QB, the receiving core, the coaching staff, the President of the Club. The fans are riled, of course and the media is baying for blood. And over the loudspeakers wafts the dulcet tones of Bishop Wilton Gregory: "Its all about the children!"
We are a sequester people.

Posted by: Chestertonian -
Feb. 13, 2010 12:52 AM ET USA

We've had at least two generations of Catholics now who have received most of their catechizing thru' CCD classes while enrolled in secular schools. By and large these classes are woefully inadequate, taught as they are by largely untrained volunteers; the blind leading the blind. So, these results are no surprise. If we want Catholic adults, we must make truly Catholic education more widely affordable, and convince parents it is worth the sacrifice of $$ and time to get it.

Posted by: TheJournalist64 -
Feb. 12, 2010 7:21 PM ET USA

The millennials I have taught for the past ten years have been pretty strong in their faith, at least in high school. Now that I am in public school, I can see a difference, but the girls in my bio class are more vehemently pro-life than the boys in my Catholic school were. That's a small sample, but it is a sign of hope.